FRENZY 2010!! Where Would You Suggest We Go?

Frenzy 2010

This year’s Frenzy is still about 5 or 6 months away, but I am already getting antsy.  As I was thinking about where we would go on this year’s Frenzy, I decided that I would reach out to the Frenzy Nation and get your opinion.

For those that don’t know what the Frenzy is, I will do a brief recap:

  • 8-10 dudes getting together once a year to fish non stop (and I do mean non-stop) for 4 – 5 days.
  • It is a tradition that we have been doing for 8 years.
  • No woman or children allowed.
  • Lots of junk food and quick eats so we can get on the water quickly.
  • We fish an area that has easy access to lots of good fisheries within a relatively short driving distance.

Most of the years we have fished in Southeast Idaho with Island Park or Victor Idaho being our base camp.  It has been great because we can fish the Madison River in Montana, the Henry’s Fork of the Snake, the South Fork of the Snake, Henry’s Lake, and other close streams.

We are not adverse to traveling a short distance to fish new waters that will produce great results.

We aren’t opposed either to fishing the same waters we do most years, I just thought it would be interesting to see where you all might suggest or places that you have gone before where you can lose yourself fishing for 4 – 5 days.  But big enough to have 8 – 10 dudes out their fishing.

Give us some suggestions!  We are all ears! Where is your 4 – 5 day fly fishing getaway?

PICS


Some Vids

We could lose everything

To all you Utah fisherman tomorrow we need your help.  I try and keep up with what the Utah Water Guardians are doing and get involved as much as possible.  Bryan Gregson has done an amazing job keeping everyone informed.  Please if you have time go the Rally tomorrow 11am at the State Capitol.  Visit Utah Water Guardians website for the latest info.

below is more of the latest information from Bryan and where exactly to meet and where you can park:

It been a crazy week. You, the public, have done a tremendous job so far! Thanks for your hard work, and your time.

There has never been a greater need for water users to get involved. There’s a very real chance anglers could lose everything and face a situation that was worse than before Conatser was decided.

Just a reminder, the rally is tomorrow, at 11am. ALSO, please send a quick fax to the media, we need to make sure they show up.

The grassroots water users are working hard at the Capitol, everyday. If you’d like to lend a hand, we could use your help. Meet daily, M-F, at 10am in front of the House Chamber doors.

Representative Webb released his bill yesterday, HB290 and Representative McIff will be releasing his bill today – its the last day to number all bills.HB29 is a hostile bil!l It’s been kept secret and has had zero public input, which means zero process. This is a bad bill anyway you look at it. More on these two bills tomorrow.

The biggest hurdle up next is the Natural Resources Committee!! Please contact them now and tell them to support HB80 and the public process that went into the drafting of this right way.

See you at the rally!
Sincerely,

Bryan Gregson
Utah Water Guardians

RALLY TOMORROW!! Friday, 2/5/10, @ 11am

This years rally is just an important as last year’s. We need to show without a doubt that the people support this decision. After the rally we will enter into the capitol and lobby to our elected representatives (just like last year)

When: Friday February 5th at 11:30am
Where: South Steps of the capitol building
What: Rally, press conference and public lobbying

Parking –> http://utahstatecapitol.utah.gov/visitors/parking.html

more info –> http://utahwaterguardians.org/?p=473

My Dads first fish on the fly

My uncle Daren was with my Dad the first time he caught a fish on the fly.  A short time after that he wrote down the experience.  After we went fishing last week he sent it to me.  I had never read it before and not to be to emotional but I did cry reading it because I know how my Dad was and how special that moment must have been.  Below is Daren’s experience and feelings on that day.

Even I was surprised at the sudden onset of fly-fishing fever my brother-in-law John Ramey had contracted. I’d seen it in many; heck, I’ve been the carrier of this illness, affecting several of my friends. But John had long been immune. As extended family, we often vacationed at places that I’d only dreamed of going with fly-fishing friends. We went to Yellowstone nearly every year, and John would watch me fly-fish the Firehole, the Gardner, or the Yellowstone, or participate via spinning rod while I float-tubed Yellowstone Lake’s generous waters. It was his annual fishing excursion, to wet the line for a couple of hours for free in a national park.

That year, something just “broke” in him, and the peaceful subtleties of competing against the fish aroused something in him. He bought a fishing license, and began spin-fishing after work and on weekends. He was excited to tell me about his fishing sorties, be they successful or not. I was intrigued, knowing that this is a bad sign if one wants to only “dabble” in fishing.

As the cool evenings of spring stretched into the sultry evenings of pure summer, John continued spin-fishing. He also made up his mind to purchase some fly-fishing gear. “Nothing super special, mind you. Just some gear to get me going, but not so expensive that I’ll feel guilty if I decide I don’t like it after all,” he reasoned. This was his last vestige of rational fiscal thought as a fisherman before he was sucked into the vortex of fly fishing, and fly fishing gadgets, forever.

But as the summer grew old and one’s dreams switched to pitching baetis patterns to hungry fall spawners, John had yet to catch that first trout on a fly. He had tied his own flies, bought some more, watched videos, and paid dues on a bushel of streams, but so far the fishing gods had yet to smile upon his offerings. “What am I doing wrong, Daren?” he asked.

“Absolutely nothing, John. It took me three months to catch anything besides a willow branch when I started, and that was a 4-inch brookie on the Gardner near the Indian Creek Campground in the Park. It was another three months before I took my first “first-string” fish, a 10-inch Provo River brown. But it will happen to you sooner than that.”

That summer, John switched from one source of frustration to another. He was building his own cabin. I helped him a lot, and we talked a lot about fishing while pounding nails and leveling deck boards. We discussed theory mainly, how trout leave a tell-tale bubble behind if they’re feeding off the surface, how it pays to figure out where the brown will run before you hook him, and how a bow-and-arrow cast will put flies into places a fish never expects to see an artificial.

One fall Saturday afternoon, we stopped along a small creek on the way home from his cabin site. I had fished this stretch many times, and knew there were trout residing in its slightly cut banks, basketball-sized rocks, and gentle riffles. The conditions were optimal: it was cloudy, warm, and the water was low and clear. I saw a few caddis dancing above the riffles, and saw a couple of snouts break the water to slurp them in. Although I had my gear, I chose to be a guide for the day, at least until John netted that first fish.

We rigged up at the car, and carefully made our way to the stream. We approached this stretch from downstream. I was asking a lot of questions, like , “Where does the main current go?” “Are there side swirls out of it?” “Where’s the deepest part of the creek?” I asked him what he’d use in this situation, and his choice was a good one: a #12 Royal Wulff. He knew as I that these fish weren’t terribly choosy and that a 12 would ride well on the riffle and would be easy to see amidst the swirls. He tied it on. I stood to his non-casting side, about twenty feet to port. I watched the fly, while he focused on placing it in the slow lane of the current freeway, about six inches from the bank.

A trout hit it immediately, but John was slow on the take and missed the fish. He had done this enough to know what happened, so he just false-casted a few times and tried putting the fly in the same spot. Sometimes he was right on, sometimes he was a few inches off. This time of year, location wouldn’t be critical on this water. I knew he would be successful.

A trout sipped the Wulff in, and John was quick on the set. I instantly began screaming like a Little-League parent: “Keep your rod tip up! Get him on the reel! Keep him out of the logs below!” All these were fine tips if the trout had been a fish measurable in pounds, not inches. This didn’t matter in the least. I beamed as John gently towed the 9-inch brown in close to his legs. He cradled it close to the water, and I captured the moment with his disposable camera. This picture, along with the fly, now sits behind a picture frame on a wall in his living room.

John returned his trophy to its wild home. Now what happened next may not have been a guy thing, but it was a fisherman thing: he hugged me. He thanked me for my help, and the mist in his eye let me know how much it meant to him. It meant a lot to me, too, for the feeling of immense satisfaction I felt right then told me that this fish was the most satisfying trout I have ever caught or ever seen caught. I smiled at him, and said “You’re welcome. Now let’s catch some more!” I knew I’d never fish alone in Yellowstone again.

The Fly Fishing Film Tour has started

Info taken from the Film Tour’s blog

Are You Ready!

The 2010 Drake Magazine Fly Fishing Film Tour officially kicked off about a week ago.
The schedule is updated, tickets are on sale and new shows are being added on a weekly basis.
This years tour is already shaping up to be the biggest tour ever with new East Coast and Mid West venues. Plus more shows in Canada, and it will even be heading to Santiago Chile!
Tickets are available on our website and at many local fly shops across the country. Check the schedule page to see what shops are selling tickets in your area.
Venues are filling up so if you haven’t pulled the trigger on buying your ticket, or if your waiting to get your ticket at the door you may want to think about getting that ticket in advance. Judging by pre sales so far this years tour is bound to have more sell out shows than ever before.
On the line up for this years program you will be watching several “first run” films making their big screen debut. They aren’t available for download, you cant watch them on YouTube, Vimeo or any other web server, media outlet or film tour across the country. Many films in the line up will be exclusively previewed only on the tour during the duration of our schedule.
So what will you be watching at this years show?
  • METALHEAD, from AEG – Legendary Steelhead in Northern BC
  • Heads or Tails, from Mad Phil Media – Permit action from Western Australia
  • Hoodoo Style, from Last Cast Media – Silvers chasing waking flies in the Aleutians
  • High in the Lowlands, from WorldAnglers – Massive Snook & Tarpon in the Florida Everglades
  • Beattie Outdoors new feature, – Mexico salt water and Midwest Steelhead
  • Rise, from Confluence Films – Classic Trout fishing from Henry’s Fork Idaho
  • Once in a Blue Moon, from On The Fly – Epic New Zealand Brown Trout
and more!
Back this year!
Fly Fishing Film Tour T-shirts, Hoodies and Buffs
Get yours at the show!

See you at the show!

There is only one location showing it in Utah so far

Tower Theater
Wednesday, February 24, 2010

SIGN UP FOR THE DRAKE TO RECEIVE ANNOUNCEMENTS
FOR DATE AND TIME CHANGES.

Doors Open: 6:30 PM
Show Starts: 7:00 PM
Get Directions

876 East 900 South
Salt Lake City, UT 84105

Ice Fishing Derby

Post by Jeff Thomas

I know this isn’t Fly Fishing, but Big Hoss heard about an Ice Fishing Derby that we decided to enter and wanted to here what went down.

My Friend Casey Scott called me a few weeks back and asked if I’d heard about the Perch Derby coming up. I told him no but we thought it would be a good excuse to get all of the boys together to hangout and do some fishing. We called all of our closest friends from Missoula and Butte, and somehow got everyone to actually show up.

The night before the Derby started we got all of our gear together and our rods all set up. After a “quick” trip downtown for a few beers (Thanks for driving Farnes) we were in bed.

The following morning we met everyone we were fishing with at Canyon Ferry (A Lake in Helena, MT). We noticed as we were unloading all of our gear that we only had two 4-wheelers between 15 people. We had no idea that we had about a 2 mile trek to our fishing destination. After tying all of the Jet Sleds together about 8-9 of us started the long walk, watching the taillights of the 4-wheelers disappear into the darkness. Then about half-way there we noticed that full-sized trucks were driving by us. I kept saying how dumb they were, but after a while when the sun came up I realized there were trucks everywhere.

When we finally got to our spot we started to set up all of the Ice huts. It was 16 degrees out but with the wind chill it was 10 degrees. It hurt to have your gloves off for even 30 seconds. After we had all of the holes drilled we finally heard “Fish On” from our buddy Jay Slocum. We were all excited and really got down to business watching our rods. It was kind of like watching paint dry except you had a beer in your hand the whole time. We fished for about 3 hrs when I was talked into hitching a ride back to get my truck on a 4-wheeler. Mostly because we didn’t want to have to walk all of the way back with all the gear.

When I returned the fishing got hot for a little while. Turns out that we couldn’t just leave the rods by them self. We found out that they would only hit if we were jigging. We ended pulling in 12 good sized perch together as a group. The Derby was for the Biggest Perch. We had 2 fish that we entered that Casey and Brad caught. (These perch were all pretty good sized).

We ended up going to the weigh in but unfortunately we didn’t catch a winner. But even though the fishing was slower than we all expected, we all had a great time and you can’t beat hanging out with all of your closest friends.